beware of firmware problems when buying any TP-Link routers & APs.

TP-Link dont do a bad job, they make good products, and they are great as a cheaper alternative to bigger and popular names such as netgear and D-Link.

Ive had 2 top-of-their-range different Wireless APs from TP-Link and they were terrible. both with buggy firmware that virtually rendered them unusable.

so be ready for problems like:

#1 - Random restarts

#2 - Random dropping of internet connections and also not letting you connect back up automatically without you (the user) having to go and manually refresh the connection in windows or do a hard reset on the unit.

#3 - Random Blocking of your internet access, I have multiple tabs open in firefox with different sites up. out of the 10 different sites i had open it those tabs, It wouldnt let me refresh them or access those sites any longer and it didnt matter what adress i put in, it wouldnt let me go anywhere but giving me the 'could not connect to website' or 'connection reset' errors. HOWEVER youtube still worked perfectly fine, and when i hooked up my laptop to it, it worked perfectly too but my PC was still unable to access the internet. so it wasnt a hiccup over at the exchange or with my ISP's DNS servers.



With that said, there are those who havent had any issues with TP-Link hardware. but at the same time there are just as many with problems.

Ive bought TP-link hardware in the past, mainly networkcards and wi-fi dongles and they are still working perfectly with no issues whatsoever 3 or 4years later

FreedomEclipsebeware of firmware problems when buying any TP-Link routers & APs.

TP-Link dont do a bad job, they make good products, and they are great as a cheaper alternative to bigger and popular names such as netgear and D-Link.

Ive had 2 top-of-their-range different Wireless APs from TP-Link and they were terrible. both with buggy firmware that virtually rendered them unusable.

Not sure which routers you had, but I have the TP-Link TL-WR941ND (www.tp-link.com/en/products/details/?model=TL-WR941ND). I've used the stock firmware for 2 months and it was working very well. No random restarts or drop of connection. DD-WRT was flashed onto the router after that and it's been working superbly for a year. Problems with the stock firmware might have showed up by now, but no way to know atm. Many Newegg reviews mentioned wireless connection failure after 2 years. Hopefully I won't run into that problem.

It's my first TP-Link router, so I can't generalize on their quality, but I am impressed so far. The TP-Link TL-WN722N USB adapter (www.tp-link.com/en/products/details/?model=TL-WN722N) has been working well for me as well.

I havent used their routers per se but i have used their TL-WA901ND & TL-WA830RE. the WA830RE was a good product while it worked then problems just started happening out of the blue and i hadnt even touched the configuration settings once i had it all set up.

the WA830RE took about a 3weeks before it started going wrong, the WA901ND was sent back to amazon within the same week after I found it suffered from random disconnects, and restarted itself once everyday and does it in such a way that i need to manually refresh the connection in windows or do a hard reset on the box.

Obviously I updated the firmware after i started having problems with both units but it didnt fix anything, that + me not being a satisfied customer and the hardware being not fit for intended purpose.

a wi-fi signal repeater/booster is only useful to me If I can use it for wi-fi. towards the end of my time with the 830RE the only way i could get any internet access was if i set up a hard line to it and its only got 1 single 100mb RJ-45 port at the back.

I spent ages messing with the 830RE thats why i was so quick to send the other one back when I found it was also 'bugged'

Im currently using an Edimax unit thats on 24/7, doesnt randomly reset itself, doesnt randomly drop my internet connection, doesnt randomly stop me accessing the internet and the wireless access point function actually works instead of me needing to setup a hardline and only being able to use the internet on my pc.


If TP-Link's routers are free from these issues then fair enough. but an AP and router are so similar in function. Im sure the team who writes the firmware for the APs also writes it for the routers.

FreedomEclipseIm currently using an Edimax unit thats on 24/7, doesnt randomly reset itself, doesnt randomly drop my internet connection, doesnt randomly stop me accessing the internet and the wireless access point function actually works instead of me needing to setup a hardline and only being able to use the internet on my pc.

Funny that you mention Edimax because it seems that we have totally opposite experiences! I bought the TP-Link router to replace an aging Edimax BR-6324nL (www.edimax.com/en/produce_detail.php?pd_id=262&pl1_id=1&pl2_id=2). After a year of usage, the Edimax router was beginning to lockup wireless connections after a few hours. Only a restart would fix the problem. I'm not impressed, but I suppose 1-2 years is a good enough lifetime for a router. Then again, my D-Link DI-524 is still working after so many years that I've lost count. :laugh:

yeah its really hit or miss with hardware these days, My dad has what i think is a netgear DG384G V2. He bought it back when we first got broadband back in 2003 i think and its still working and chugging along just fine.

It doesnt stay on 24/7 though, he only has it on when hes using the internet, thats probably why its lasted so long

fap fap fap fap


i use TP link routers myself, and short of a few bad models (all companies have at least one bad product) they've been excellent. this has awesome specs, and probably has a bunch of standard TP link ones they never mentioned (such as bandwidth shaping)

edi: i actually have the same router and wifi dongle as Sirmango that he linked to above, as well as a TL-WR743ND as a wireless bridge.


edit 2: and actually, my brother has one of their all in one modem/router combos, and its firmware is totally different to their pure router models. its entirely possible they're different teams who make them, thus the quality difference.

Yea, I ran across this router on Newegg and decided to do some looking into it...

Looks pretty nice! I'm heading off to college this fall semester and I have started looking around for a wireless router to plug into the hardwired jack in dorm room. I'l like to have a router set up there se that I can have my own little network somewhat isolated from the rest of the campus.

But yea, so far I'm liking the features of this router: 4x gigabit LAN ports (also gigabit WAN port... I'm not sure what the connection speed is for the wall jack where I'm going, so like the idea of having gigabit upstream in case the network is gigabit), 2x USB ports (wouldn't need to screw around with getting a NAS... just plug in a hd), and also fast wireless to utilize my laptop's fast wireless card :)

Anyway, if issues with TP-Link products are firmware-based, I'm guessing that flashing it with DD-WRT would solve the problems?

ElectroPulseYea, I ran across this router on Newegg and decided to do some looking into it...

Looks pretty nice! I'm heading off to college this fall semester and I have started looking around for a wireless router to plug into the hardwired jack in dorm room. I'l like to have a router set up there se that I can have my own little network somewhat isolated from the rest of the campus.

But yea, so far I'm liking the features of this router: 4x gigabit LAN ports (also gigabit WAN port... I'm not sure what the connection speed is for the wall jack where I'm going, so like the idea of having gigabit upstream in case the network is gigabit), 2x USB ports (wouldn't need to screw around with getting a NAS... just plug in a hd), and also fast wireless to utilize my laptop's fast wireless card :)

Anyway, if issues with TP-Link products are firmware-based, I'm guessing that flashing it with DD-WRT would solve the problems?

i found the TP link firmwares to be better than the DD-WRT's that were available. its not so much firmware bugs, as that documentation is lacking (EG, the wifi client i have in 'client' mode has no DHCP, so if you dont set its IP address to something in the same IP range/subnet as the network its connecting to, you wont be able to log into it without giving yourself a static IP)